My last visit to Cozumel was wonderful. I spent it with friends, did yoga, and went diving and snorkeling A LOT.
Enjoy looking at the fabulous creatures and scenery you can see under the waves in the beautiful
Mexican Caribbean!
Hope you enjoyed today’s show and tell! Some of these are not as appreciated as they should be. I love photographing the little stuff!
Have a great weekend!11
It has been a while since I have blogged! My last post was from beautiful Cozumel, and it was a great trip (for the most part). I was joined by two yoga buddies, and my roomie from my volunteer stint in Mozambique in 2012. How lovely it is to have a girl trip! We did a lot of yoga with Tammy Cervantes (THE yoga guru on the island) who came to our house to teach us a workshop, two classes, and meditation. She is also a wonderful masseuse! It would be quite difficult to find a better teacher…she is excellent. We snorkeled, Leslie and I went diving, we had wonderful meals (another blog on that one!), and talked, talked, talked. It was relaxing as well as fun. Well, until I came down with Dengue Fever!
Okay. I never had the blood test, so I don’t know for sure that I had it, but I don’t know what else it could have been. I had the symptoms, and I now fully understand why they call it “break bone fever”. Your bones and joints hurt like bloody hell! I had fevers over 102 degrees, and was sick, sick, sick. I really don’t know how I made it home last Friday I was in so much pain. The saddest thing about it: my daughter’s boyfriend (now fiance) proposed to her last Saturday and had a little surprise get together for her…I couldn’t be there. And yes, it just killed me. I tried, but I couldn’t stop shaking long enough to even put on make-up. To add insult to injury, my son and his fiance came into town for the event, and I could barely even visit with them. It was awful.
So, I missed my daughter’s proposal party, my son and future daughter-in-law’s visit, and it has only been in the last couple of days that I have truly come up for air. After the pain and fever goes, one is completely exhausted. Oh, by the way, you get Dengue from a mosquito, it cannot be transmitted any other way. It is miserable…wear bug spray!!!!!! The diving was absolutely fantastic on the trip, as these photos will prove! Now I’m getting ready to go to Florida…but that’s a long story, and I don’t know yet how it will turn out. Midlife, it turns out, is full of twists and turns!
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
I love to travel, I love to meet new people, see new things, experience new cultures. I am curious about everything, and excitable. I have never become jaded…I seek that thrill, that little something extra which waits around the corner. I realize that not everyone is a traveler, but you don’t have to go far to find some adventure or a new outlook!
1. Adventure takes you out of your comfort zone. Your comfort zone is…comforting, but it does not give you the opportunity to stretch yourself, to grow. It is important to challenge yourself, see something new. When you step out you achieve something…instead of stagnating you are moving, you are active. (Your comfort zone really does not exist, you know. It is a comforting illusion.)
2. Adventure can help you conquer your fears. It doesn’t have to be a big adventure. Afraid of water? Learn to swim! Afraid of heights? Climb a hill, or better yet, go to a vista point at the nearest national park. Fear is paralyzing…so get up and move. If not now, when?
3. Adventure introduces you to new people, or at least gets you out of your zone so you can observe active, adventurous, or different people! Head to the nearest lake and watch boaters, paddle boarders, kayakers, picnickers! Have you ever gone on a hike? How about to an art museum? I live in Dallas, and haven’t been to the Perot Museum yet! Shame on me.
4. Adventure introduces you to different cultures and new perspectives. The culture you live in isn’t the only one, you know! Ever thought about doing volunteer travel, especially abroad? These trips are not expensive, and you usually get all of your meals plus a place to stay. Airfare is reasonable to Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and many other places. Volunteer travels can be eye opening and have a major impact on your life by showing you how others live, think, and do things. These volunteer trips are becoming more and more popular, and for good reason. I went on a volunteer holiday to Tofo, Mozambique in 2012, and I can tell you I learned more than I thought I possibly could, not only about Africa, but about myself. In September I’m volunteering in Ecuador, photographing manta rays for identification and study. I am so looking forward to it! There are trips for every taste, be it teaching children or diving or digging wells or teaching people skills for making a living. There are many ways to make a difference!
5. Adventuring can be a little scary, and that’s a good reason to do it! We fear what we don’t understand. Travel can educate you and make you see the world in an entirely different way. It challenges you to learn about yourself, to learn the history of other countries or peoples, and learning to understand, even if you don’t agree, is the path to knowledge, and hopefully, wisdom.
There are many ways to challenge your mind, body, ideas, and abilities. I have often traveled alone, but traveling alone to Mozambique was a completely empowering experience for me. I blogged about the trip in my blog categories Adventures in Mozambique and Dive Adventures in Tofo, Mozambique. Sometimes one sees things that are terribly upsetting, on my travels, and at home, I have learned how cruel the world can be. Everything is not always rosy, especially in the developing world. But there is beauty too…when you look. It opened my eyes, and also gave me confidence that I could achieve and go and do whatever I wanted to. Maybe a little travel, even if it is just an hour away, can do that for you as well.
My cousin in Ohio told me once that he had never been west of Indiana. He had no interest, he said, what else is there to see, what’s the point? I stood with my jaw hanging open, because I really was confounded. What else is there to see? An entire world, that’s what! If you are reading this blog, you must enjoy traveling, or want to travel, so I’m sure you can understand my complete astonishment! I think Mark Twain said it best:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
I have some favorite volunteer travel agents and agencies such as All Out Africa, Kaya Responsible Travel, the Giving Lens (a great volunteer program for photographers)….there are just so many! Get out there on Google and google away! Start by googling this: adult volunteer travel programs. Why not see the world and make a difference at the same time?
June is the month of weddings, and ours occurred 33 years ago today! I cannot believe it has gone by so quickly. And…tonight is a full moon, on Friday the 13th! It must be a good omen! The last few years have been tough ones, but Randy is recovering well from his double lung transplant which occurred 9 months ago, so we are looking forward to better, and healthier, times. If any lesson was learned from the events of the last couple of years, it was a lesson confirming something I already knew: you never know what can happen, so do the things you want to do, say the things you want to say, and do it and say it NOW.
Now is all you have.
As Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
We were “set up” on a blind date by friends of my parents, Bob and Dottie Green, who were Randy’s aunt and uncle! We were such babies, I was 20 and Randy was 23.
Ah, we had the most beautiful and romantic wedding! We are at 33 years, and we plan to make it to 50, 60, or 70 years!
In September, 2013, my husband, Randy, had a double lung transplant. The crisis happened quickly, and was certainly not anticipated by anyone. The events were severely debilitating for Randy, who was on life support (ECMO, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, and a Ventilator), not only physically, but emotionally as well. My two children, their significant others, and family friends gathered to support us, and that support was an absolute blessing. We are all so lucky to have Randy with us, but the simple truth is, life has changed for him, for us, for our family. It isn’t always easy to deal with. (I blogged about the entire experience under the category, Transplant. An Unexpected Journey). The roller coaster ride we have been on continues. It is simple fact that of all transplant outcomes, lung transplants have the least encouraging survival rates. After a lung transplant, the survival rate at 1 month is 95%, at 1 year it is 82.7%, and at 3 years it is 63%. The 5 year survival rate hovers around 50%. Why? Because the lungs are the only organ open to the air. Any germ, bacteria, irritant, pollutant enters the body through the lungs. Because the lungs are so vulnerable, thinking about the consequences of any given activity is a must.
We were able to attend the engagement party of close friends two weeks ago, and it was so exciting to actually be at a party, a social event! The party was outdoors, which made it less dangerous as far as picking up infections, etc, and we had a lovely time. Everyone was just so happy to see Randy! Last night, we were unable to go to the first birthday party for Bodie, the grandson of dear friends, because of the number of children who would be there, and apparently there has been a serious illness making the rounds at the local schools. Randy has been experiencing a few symptoms this last week, so we decided it would be best if neither of us exposed ourselves to anything else. That is just a small example of the changes in our lives.
I have been relentlessly positive about Randy’s outcome. There are people who make it to 10 and 20 years post lung transplant, and I believe Randy will be one of them. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t worry, or if sometimes I catch my breath in fear. I do. Obviously, the life we had planned to live has been replaced by uncertainty. We love to travel and dive and hand glide and snorkel….some of this will be changed forever. I plan to take my dive trips, diving is truly my passion, and we are starting to travel a bit within the US. Next week we are off to San Antonio to enjoy a week at a home overlooking the city, traveling to New Braunfels ( a small German town known for its Octoberfests), and Fredericksburg (known for it’s quaint streets and art scene). I am a little nervous. When considering travel, we have to think about how quickly he could be seen by a lung transplant team, not just a doctor. Randy’s medications and ongoing treatment make it dangerous to be treated by anyone who doesn’t have some knowledge of transplants. San Antonio has a lung transplant team at the University of Texas Health partner, University Transplant Center. I’ve been in touch with our transplant clinic about the trip, and I’m sure everything will be fine, but this is Randy’s first trip away from home since the surgery. I imagine we will pay a visit to the Alamo, and most certainly the famous River Walk. Next month we are headed up Highway 1 (or 101?) in California from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, to Big Sur, Carmel and Monterey, San Francisco, then a week in Shelter Cove. After, we head to Lake Tahoe for a week. Shelter Cove has air ambulances, and so does Tahoe. I’ve already checked.
Randy is doing very well, he is starting to build up strength and muscle, and his attitude is quite good. He is down to a fairly low dose of prednisone, the drug our transplant team calls, “the asshole drug”. Ha ha. At 9 months post, he is in pretty good shape after everything he has been through!
I know this trip to the Andaman Sea off Thailand and Myanmar was just a few months ago, but I LOVE the photos. I just….love them! I’m putting unusual sea life photos on this photo entry. Enjoy your trip under the sea!
